Emails Reveal How Vista Decisions Infuriated HP

Issues with Intel's integrated graphics touched off a cascade of complications affecting Microsoft's Vista rollout, prompting the creation of the "Vista Capable" designation that eventually angered Microsoft customers Hewlett-Packard and Sony.

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Issues with Intel's integrated graphics touched off a cascade of complications affecting Microsoft's Vista rollout, prompting the creation of the "Vista Capable" designation that eventually angered Microsoft customers Hewlett-Packard and Sony.

Emails unsealed last week by a district court judge reveal the at-times heated back-and-forth discussions between Microsoft and its partners. The case, filed by two consumers, was brought against Microsoft in a Washington state court earlier this year, and later given class-action status.

A new batch of email, released Thursday, point to a even more problems between HP and Microsoft, as HP chief executive Mark Hurd complained to Ballmer that the company was "being overrun" with support calls.

Covering a period from roughly April 2005 through Feb. 2007, the emails show that Intel was initially unable to supply an integrated graphics chipset that would meet the needs of the "Aero Glass" interface that Microsoft had so highly touted in Vista. However, the company had a stockpile of older, less capable chips.

At Intel's request, Microsoft created a "good/better/best" product rollout strategy  ranging from "Windows Capable" to the Basic and Premium Vista logo programs  allowing PC makers to manufacture low-end PCs using the Intel 945 "Calistoga" chipset and thus participate in the Vista launch. Those chipsets lacked a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) (also referred to as the Longhorn Display Driver Model) driver, one of the keys to the Aero Glass interface.

Hewlett-Packard, meanwhile, had invested heavily in leading-edge Intel chipsets, even designing two motherboards around them. The inclusion of the "Vista Capable" designation angered HP, worried Sony, and even frustrated some of Microsoft's marketing and technical executives.

While the emails further detail the level of frustration felt by Microsoft's partners, the initial motivation for the Vista Capable logo was explained in February, when another passel of email was released describing more of the relationship between Microsoft and Intel, and the integrated chipsets. The smoking gun there was the astounding lack of driver support that accompanied Vista's launch, a consequence of Microsoft's apparent lack of credibility with independent hardware vendors. In those emails, both Microsoft senior executives as well as board member and former Microsoft president Jon Shirley complained about the lack of drivers and the overall poor user experience on Vista machines. The reason? Microsoft's partners didn't trust the company to ship Vista on time.

Sony weakens "Vista Ready" requirements

In late 2005, Microsoft was worrying about how its PC OEM partners would prepare for the launch. Vista-optimized PCs would go out on launch day, but there was a concern about whether or not existing PCs could run Vista. A "Vista Ready" list of requirements had been passed along to OEMs for about a year, and Microsoft executives were reluctant to change them  which they eventually did.

The problem Microsoft faced was how to prepare the market for Vista without cannibalizing Windows XP sales. Windows manager Rajesh Srinivasan sent an email to several managers on Oct. 11, 2005, noting that it was "impractical" for OEMs to design systems without something to test against. "The primary goal of Ready PC program is to limit stall of XP sales as we continue to build Vista buzz," he wrote.

"You cannot go out and 'reset' Ready PC requirements with OEMs," wrote Mark Croft, a Microsoft marketing director, on Nov. 1, 2005. "This is a very highly charged topic with OEMs." But Srinivasan also worried about "customer dis-sat[isfaction]" with PCs that were marketed as Vista Ready, but would not be able to run the premium Aero Glass graphics interface.

After a conversation with Sony executives and its own graphics team, however, Microsoft punched several holes in its logo programs where ultramobile (UMPCs) and ultraportable (UPPCs) were concerned. On Dec.15, 2005, Windows manager Rajesh Srinivasan sent former corporate vice president for Windows Product Marketing Mike Sievert a lengthy email, waiving the premium graphics requirements for ultraportable PCs (UPPCs), and the Vista logo requirements for ultramobile PCs (UMPCs). The rationale Srinivasan gave was to "close the issue and protect [Sievert's] credibility with Sony".

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